I’m aware that you, as a reader of Pro Mobile, will be someone who strives for professionalism in all areas of your business. And one area I’m sure you particularly give a lot of thought to is marketing.

Without marketing, very few people would even know you exist, let alone understand anything about the services you offer or how you could turn their average event into a truly special, memorable one. But the trouble with marketing is that it changes at such a rapid, almost daily, pace that it can be a struggle to keep up.

One marketing term you’ve probably heard or seen bandied around is ‘SEO’, which stands for Search Engine Optimisation. As you might have gathered, this process involves optimising your website for search engines, so that your website is more visible, you get more clicks, and, in the end, more bookings for your services.

Some of this optimisation happens at the back-end of your website (called off-page SEO). But what I mainly want to focus on in this article is the on-page SEO; the website content that the public sees, which can be optimised to improve your ranking on Google and other search engines.

Why should I bother optimising my website for search engines?

It’s a fair question. You might be thinking: I don’t need any more traffic from search engines, I’ll just put out more paid adverts on Facebook or print off more flyers or business cards to leave at venues. OK, fair enough, but the problem with both of those things is that they cost money. SEO is actually completely free, but the benefits can be absolutely huge for your business.

After all, your website can look incredible, the content can read perfectly, but if it isn’t optimised for search engines, you’re decreasing your chances of being discovered by all those potential clients surfing the web looking for a DJ right this second. By carrying out the following steps, you can increase the number of hits on your website, leading to more bookings and improving people’s awareness of you and your business.

1. Carry out keyword research to learn what your potential customers are searching for

Keyword research is essential to carry out before you start optimising your website. In fact, it’s the first thing you should do. Now, surely your keywords are ‘DJ’, ‘mobile’, and ‘disco’, or something along those lines, right? Well, in theory, yes. But the problem is that those are the keywords for EVERY DJ EVER. In order to rank higher, you need to research the specific terms that your potential customers are using when they search for a DJ.

To do this, head to Google Adwords and sign yourself up for a free account. Then find the ‘Keyword Research Tool’ and start searching for the key terms or words that you think your target customers might be using. The tool displays the search frequency, so you can see what people are actually searching for most often. What you want to find is that sweet spot between popular and niche: too popular and you are competing with thousands of other companies; too niche and you aren’t going to get enough search traffic.

To begin with, try ‘mobile DJ [your town name]’ and see what that brings up. When people book a DJ, they usually go for somebody local, so this makes sense as a starting point. Then see if you can you hone it down even more. Perhaps you specialise in ‘80s music? ‘Mobile DJ Birmingham ‘80s Music’ could be a key term that you want to optimise your site for. Or what about wedding DJ Harry Kilb’s Steampunk Disco? That’s an example of a niche term that steampunk fans will no doubt be searching for, so you would optimise for ‘steampunk wedding disco DJ in [your local area]’. You should aim to hone in on a few of these words and phrases and make a note of them, as they will be key to your SEO strategy.

2. Choose the right name for your business or change your web domain name

This is a point worth considering, although I know many Pro Mobile readers own well-established companies with solid brand identities. However, the name of your business and the web domain you choose are big factors in your web rankings. These days, you’ll notice that domain names don’t always match the name of the business, because many companies choose to use keywords or search terms instead.

For instance, if you search ‘wedding DJ Essex’ in Google, one of the top results is www.essexmobiledisco.co.uk, but is that the name of the business? No, it’s just a search term. Upon clicking, we realise this is actually the website for Mike Aaron Entertainment (and, weirdly, he’s not actually a wedding DJ). This was a smart move by Mike, because now his ranking for terms such as ‘mobile DJ Essex’ and ‘Essex mobile disco’ is way better than it would be if he used www.mikeaaronentertainment.co.uk as his domain name. If you’re just starting out, or you don’t mind changing your domain name, consider these SEO factors.